Eye Black

Not a great start to the inning for Hader.

Gamel is swinging the Summer Camp bat right now.

It’s amazing how quickly things change in this weird season... Three weeks ago Jake Cronenworth was the runaway NL Rookie of the Year, now in the month of September he’s hitting: .205 BA / .271 OBP / .318 SLG / .589 OPS

Getting out of the runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs situation scoreless was an accomplishment.

They should sign an exclusive broadcast deal with YouTube. If you were only able to watch them on YouTube this year you’d think this was the reincarnation of Harvey’s Wallbangers.

Alright Orlando!

I never thought coming back to take a lead on the Kansas City Royals could feel so exhilarating, yet here we are. Now score some more runs and hope the bullpen holds up through the middle innings.

Rasmussen might have got a little off the edge there, but this is a playoff race and I’ll take it.

Braun hit a pretty big one last September. Sure, but the frequency of grand slams seems like it has to be less than other teams. I could be wrong, I’ll see if I can find it.

Useless seems a bit harsh. It was a bad AB and he’s having a rough stretch. It sucks, but I get the feeling at times were making a lot of (inaccurate) sweeping conclusions over two months of baseball.

Wow, Nottingham!!!! It feels like the Brewers never hit grand slams.

I have a feeling the Brewers are going to score 5+ runs tonight, I just hope the can limit the damage the rest of the way.

Do we even know the context of the double bird Grisham flipped? The photo of him doing it has been around all season so either it was from Spring Training or a game very early this season.

Lathund covered a lot of great points above, very well done. Do I wish Urias was absolutely raking? Sure. But there is still such a large range of outcomes left for what both Grisham and Urias could become that it's premature to assign definitive conclusions. Urias will still be 23 years old when next baseball season begins. Aside from true superstar caliber players, many players struggle early in their careers as they adjust to major league pitching. I would encourage folks to go back and take a look at the results from the age 21-23 seasons for many players that ultimately developed into solid to good hitters over the past decade. Players like Jose Ramirez, Eugenio Suarez, and Ketel Marte took time to become above average MLB hitters, even Jose Altuve and Javier Baez didn't immediately set the baseball world on fire. I’m not even saying I’m betting on Urias to become as good as any of those players, but many hitters that struggle early on can develop into quality major league hitters. Again, I don't know what type of player Urias ultimately develops into. I’ve seen a lot of Arcia comparisons, but if I was going to compare him to a past Brewers infielder I think Jean Segura may make more sense. Segura was both very good and very bad at times during his stint with the Brewers. They traded him at 25-years old and he proceeded to put up a 6.4 WAR season (via Baseball Reference) the following year and received MVP votes. In the years since the truth has proven to be somewhere in the middle with Segura (~3 WAR player). That is sort of my guess with Urias, that he’ll have some stretches (or seasons) where he is very good and others were he's much closer average. It’s still just a guess though and I’ll wait longer before coming to any definitive conclusions regarding his future outlook.

And also versus a left handed starter!

I don't want Saturday unless they commit to having Friday and Sunday games. I enjoy weekend baseball too much to lose it. If anything, Sunday would be a great day for a double header which would allow Monday's to be an off day for guys to re-coop. But yes, I agree and have stated in before that I love the 2-7's throughout the year. It brings a different strategy to the season and the games move quickly and are exciting. That and the DH to the NL would be great to have stay in the game. They will always keep games on Friday’s and Sunday’s because those are the games teams make the highest in-venue revenue from. It’s also the reason I would be shocked if the owners would be in favor of the frequent 7-inning doubleheader’s once fans return. Less total dates with home baseball games means less total parking, concessions, and ticket revenue.

Tonight's game is on Fox Sports Wisconsin, but also available for free on .

I’m really torn on this overall. I think it will increase interest in the playoffs, but it’s probably moving away from the best way to crown a true champion in the sport. Baseball can’t be compared to basketball because the true talent best team wins much more often in basketball. Baseball over a three game series is a truly random outcome, there will be plenty of near .500 teams that knock off a 100-win division champion in the first round. The thing that is interesting to me about this is the worst place to be in baseball historically has been in the middle-of-the-pack. Baseball has mostly rewarded teams that were very good and very bad. This completely changes that dynamic. I do think for those of us that love an active trade deadline we are probably less likely to see the best teams pull off blockbuster moves to “go for it” because of the increase in the randomness of possible outcomes.

If you’re interested here is a look back at the teams that would have been the 8th seed in both leagues over the last 20+ years (go 2007 Brewers!)... Baseball America “Losers Welcome: Teams Below .500 Would Frequently Make A 16-Team Postseason”

Adrian Houser: Batter (Royals) vs Pitching Stats Danny Duffy: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

It was a good night as far as the Brewers playoff hopes are concerned. Of the eight teams outlined above that are jockeying for the last four playoff spots the following teams won and lost... Won Giants (25-24) Mets (23-27) Lost Marlins (25-23) Phillies (24-25) Cardinals (22-24) Rockies (22-27) Brewers remain one game behind the Reds for 2nd place in the NL Central, but now are also only one game back of the Phillies for the 8th playoff spot.

Dakota Hudson

Feels like it’s a race to .500 for teams competing for the last couple NL Wild Card spots. Below is a look at the NL playoff picture and remaining opponents. NL Playoff Locks: Dodgers Cubs Braves Padres That leaves 4 more playoff spots, two of which will go to the second place team in the NL East and NL Central. Here is every other NL team with a chance and their opponents over the final 11 days of the season. For the wild card contenders I have listed the record they need to finish with to get to .500. Marlins (25-22) - Record needed to finish .500 is 5-8 Opponents: Red Sox (1), Nationals (5), Braves (4), Yankees (3) Phillies (24-24) - Record needed to finish .500 is 6-6 Opponents: Mets (1), Blue Jays (4), Nationals (4), Rays (3) Giants (24-24) - Record needed to finish .500 is 6-5 or 6-6 (Giants have 11 remaining games scheduled, so slated to play only 59 games, but it seems likely MLB will add another game versus the Padres to their schedule on the last weekend of the season if it has playoff implications) Opponents: Mariners (1), A’s (3), Rockies (4), Padres (3 or 4) Reds (25-26) - Record needed to finish .500 is 5-4 Opponents: White Sox (3), Brewers (3), Twins (3) Cardinals (22-23) - Record needed to finish .500 is 7-6 (Cardinals have 13 games remaining, so slated to play 58 games) Opponents: Pirates (5), Royals (3), Brewers (5) 
 Brewers (23-26) - Record needed to finish .500 is 7-4 Opponents: Royals (3), Reds (3), Cardinals (5) Rockies (22-26) - Record needed to finish .500 is 8-4 Opponents: Dodgers (4), Giants (4), Dbacks (4) Mets (22-27) - Record needed to finish .500 is 8-3 Opponents: Phillies (1), Braves (3), Rays (3), Nationals (4)

I agree that 7-4 would be necessary to feel good about their chances (a .500 final record), but 6-5 may give them a chance (would be a 29-31 final record). In addition to the Brewers taking care of business it’s time to start rooting against teams like the Phillies, Giants and to a lesser extent the Rockies.

I knew it had been this bad, but it’s still incredible...